A bit of Bridport history, 26 East Street

Back in 2012 I wrote a short piece about the different shops that had traded from 26 East Street Bridport.

At the time of writing the shop was empty. Since then it has been leased to the Weldmar Trust as their second Bridport charity shop.

I have also seen a far earlier photograph of the building. It was hanging on the wall of the Greyhound Hotel just along the road. This picture shows a sign saying “BRIDPORT AEROPLANE BANK” above the door and windows. A search found a company called Barrie Pictures selling these as prints. Barrie pictures say the photo dates from c1919. In the picture a sign saying “National War Bonds” can be seen and so I suspect it is actually from the First World War.

The 2012 article

I see estate agents Palmer Snell have moved their Bridport office just down the road to the premises vacated by their sister company Fulfords. This leaves 26 East Street, Bridport empty which set me thinking about the 1970s when Wilfred Snook occupied this shop.
Wilfred Snook sold brown goods, the generic name for televisions, radios etc because they normally came in brown wooden cabinets. In those days many television shops also sold records and Snooks was no exception, you went through into the back room where there were racks of 12" LPs and 7" singles.
When Snooks pulled out of number 26 they passed it on to television rental company Redifusion who were subsequently taken over by Granada TV Rental. The declining television and video recorder rental market led to the Bridport branch of Granada closing down in about 1994. A clothes shop moved in for a short while followed by Palmer Snell who moved from a smaller building directly across the road, next door to what was then Woolworths (now Spar).

Empty shop at 26 East Street, Bridport. Late 2012.Granada TV Rental at 26 East Street, Bridport. Late 1994.